The Day One Project’s Leadership Council, co-chaired by John Holdren and Susan Eisenhower, served as an advisory board as the Day One Project team worked to identify and advance key S&T priorities before the start of the new presidential term and Congress in January 2021. The Leadership Council, comprised of leaders from across the science, technology, and innovation community brought deep experience in S&T policymaking as the Project sought to engage the S&T community.
COUNCIL MEMBERS
John Holdren
Council Co-Chair
Dr. John P. Holdren is the Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Co-Director of the School’s Science, Technology, and Public Policy program, Professor of Environmental Science and Policy in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, and Affiliated Professor in the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science. From January 2009 to January 2017, he was President Barack Obama’s Science Advisor and Senate-confirmed Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), becoming the longest-serving Science Advisor to the President in the nearly 80-year history of the position.
Susan Eisenhower
Council Co-Chair
Susan Eisenhower serves as president of the Eisenhower Group, Inc., which provides strategic counsel on political and business projects. Eisenhower was a founding director and the first president of the Eisenhower Institute, where she became known for her work in the former Soviet Union and in the energy field. Eisenhower has consulted for major corporations and has served on many government task forces, including the NASA Advisory Council, the Department of Energy’s Baker-Cutler Commission on U.S.-funded nuclear nonproliferation programs in Russia, and the National Academy of Sciences’ standing Committee on International Security and Arms Control. Eisenhower has authored three books, two of which appeared on regional bestseller lists, and has edited four collected volumes on regional security issues.
Wanda Austin
Dr. Wanda M. Austin is the co-founder of MakingSpace, Inc., a systems engineering and leadership development consultant, and a motivational speaker internationally recognized for her work in aeronautics and systems engineering. She served as interim president of the University of Southern California for the 2018-2019 academic year and led the institution through a crucial transition period. She is the former president and CEO of The Aerospace Corporation, an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to the application of science and technology toward critical issues affecting the nation’s space program. Dr. Austin served on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology in President Barack Obama’s Administration. She is an honorary fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Ryan Costello
Ryan Costello is the founder of Ryan Costello Strategies. He previously spent 16 years in public service and private law practice. As a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 2015 to 2019, he represented a portion of the Philadelphia suburbs. Costello was a bridge-builder who led on diverse and often complex issues, including those in emerging growth industries like clean energy, tele-health, drones, cannabis, data security and privacy, orphan and specialty drugs, medical technology and the life sciences, 5G and spectrum issues, IoT, EV, and self-driving car technology. A member of the Republican Whip team, Costello worked with House Leadership to help build consensus, craft messaging, and advance legislative priorities, while also maintaining focus on the local needs of a highly-competitive congressional district.
Margaret Hamburg
Dr. Margaret Hamburg is an internationally recognized leader in public health and medicine. She is the immediate past Chair and President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and just completed her term as foreign secretary of the National Academy of Medicine. Hamburg is a former Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), having served for almost six years in President Barack Obama’s Administration. As FDA Commissioner she was known for advancing regulatory science, streamlining and modernizing FDA’s regulatory pathways, and globalization of the agency. Previous government positions include Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Commissioner for New York City, and Assistant Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health.
Arati Prabhakar
Dr. Arati Prabhakar is the founder and CEO of Actuate, a nonprofit organization to research and demonstrate breakthrough solutions for societal challenges. Dr. Prabhakar has been a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in President Barack Obama’s Administration, a partner at U.S. Venture Partners, and director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in President Bill Clinton’s Administration. She holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from Texas Tech University and an M.S. in electrical engineering and a Ph.D. in applied physics from the California Institute of Technology. She is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
Kathy Sullivan
Dr. Kathryn Sullivan has had a long career as a distinguished scientist, astronaut, and executive. She was one of the first six women to join the NASA Astronaut Corps in 1978 and holds the distinction of being the first American woman to walk in space. She flew on three space shuttle missions during her 15-year NASA tenure, including the 1990 mission that deployed the Hubble Space Telescope. Since leaving NASA, Sullivan has held a variety of senior executive positions, including Presidential appointments to the National Science Board and as Chief Scientist, Deputy Administrator, and Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, while simultaneously serving as Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere in President Barack Obama’s Administration. She serves on the board of International Paper, the National Audubon Society, the advisory board of Terra Alpha Investments, and holds the positions of Senior Fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies and Ambassador at Large for the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.
Deborah Wince-Smith
The Honorable Deborah L. Wince-Smith is the President & CEO of the Council on Competitiveness, a non-partisan leadership coalition of CEOs, university presidents, labor union leaders, and national laboratory directors, all committed to developing policy solutions and national initiatives to drive future productivity growth, prosperity for all Americans, and the global success of American business. She has more than 20 years of experience as a senior U.S. government official, as the first Senate-confirmed Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy in the U.S. Department of Commerce in the Administration of President George H.W. Bush and as the Assistant Director for International Affairs in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Reagan Administration.
Eric Lander
Member Emeritus
Dr. Eric Lander is the president and founding director of the Broad Institute, a research institute focused on genomic medicine that is closely affiliated with MIT, Harvard and five of Boston’s major hospitals. He is also a professor at MIT and the Harvard Medical School. Dr. Lander was one of the principal leaders of the Human Genome Project. A geneticist, molecular biologist, and mathematician, he has played a pioneering role in the reading, understanding, and biomedical application of the human genome. Dr. Lander served as co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology in President Barack Obama’s Administration and serves as a member of the Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Board.